Political Memes

Well, I think that if he meant social media, he would have said, "social media," not, "your media." I don't want to speak for other North American countries, but I think there has been a pretty seismic shift in how Americans look at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Our schools do not educate people on the history of the region properly; I made it through a college level course on Middle East history that didn't mention the Nakba. On top of that, Israel's shift to the far right under Netanyahu happened around the same time as the War on Terror, so America was reaching peak Islamophobia at anti-Arab sentiment as the conditions for Palestinians was getting progressively worse.

What's changed is that we've seen the War in Terror turn into an unmitigated disaster. So now, when Americans see an unprecedented level of destruction in Gaza, and here our media talking about how Israel is waging a war on terrorists, we're far less sympathetic to that kind of rhetoric. I think a lot of people are getting information regarding Israel/Palestine for the first time through social media, but I think that a lot of Americans' newfound opinions reflect a deeper cultural shift than just seeing Instagram posts.